Yesterday morning I got up and headed down to Cattle point hoping to find some birds. This is the first time I have been down there with a low tide and it looked pretty different that it does at high tide. With the mud and smaller rocks exposed it made an ideal location to spot some shore birds such as Black Oystercatchers.
In one of the tide pools in the rocks there was also a lone Least Sandpiper that I spent some time watching.
This was my last full day in Jasper and I had planned on going up Mount Edith Cavell to check out the glacier and ice cave but to my disappointment the road was closed. Instead I made my way to Athabasca Falls and then to Sunwapta Falls.
Below the falls
Sunwapta Falls is difficult to get any decent photos of because it seems that every angle something seems wrong so never really got any photos I was really happy with, the following photo is of the canyon just after the falls.
After a busy day the day before we decided to go check out the Miette Hot Springs. The hot springs are up a winding mountain road which was very beautiful and seemed to have a large population of big horn sheep.
After enjoying a relaxing time in the hot springs I decided to explore some of the trails near the town of Jasper. The trail I was on made it’s way up a steep hill with a great view of the town and surrounding mountains.
Stormy skies of the town of Jasper
Looking out from a cliff top, the town of Jasper is to the left.
One of the rivers that winds through the park near the Town of JasperToday was my first real day in Jasper and I decided to make my way up Maligne Valley stopping off at a few places along the way. The first stop was the stunning Medicine lake, one of the larger lakes that is drained by a series of underground rivers.
After Exploring the area around the lake for awhile it was time to move on the the famous Maligne Lake, by the time the weather had clouded over a bit but it was still a beautiful lake even though it was busy.
On the way back I saw some Hoary Marmots and stopped to get some pictures, these where quite tame and didn’t seem to even notice me.
The last stop before getting back to camp was the Maligne canyon which I had visited before.
I was woken up early by the lovely sound of heavy rain on my tent, in a brief pause in the rain I packed up camp and started on my way towards Jasper. On my way out of Wells Gray I did stop at a few places. One of those was a viewpoint overlooking the valley that the road follows.
My next stop was at another well know waterfall, Spahats Falls which has carved into the volcanic rock before it tumbles off a cliff into a raging creek.
The rest of the day was a pretty uneventful drive up to Jasper and then setting up camp.
